Americans are about to choose a president / commander-in-chief, 435 congressional members and 50 senators - an awesome privilege of constitutionally enfranchised citizens.

Hopefully voters who go to the polls Nov. 7 will do so with the same regard for the process as did Davy Crockett. He is known in song as "king of the wild frontier" and in history as a three-time congressman from Tennessee who died a hero in the 1836 Battle of Alamo.

His views on the U.S. Constitution are next after those of James Madison and other writers of the Federalist Papers. Crockett's "Message to Congress" in 1834 was little noted at the time. However, it was immortalized in "The Life Of Colonel David Crockett" compiled by Edward S. Elis and first published in l884.

A proposal now before the Ohio General Assembly to lower the voting age to 18 provides an opportunity to build some badly needed political awareness into voting qualifications.

The pros and cons of the proposal will be widely debated in the coming months. Predictably, the arguments will hinge on
the responsibility of young people,
fairness of enfranchising those subject to military service,
increased democracy, and
further enfeeblement of the U. S. Constitution.

Don't get out the vote.

How did the notion get started that it is every citizen's duty to vote?

As we approach another presidential election, we are badgered by newspapers, television, radio and other mass media to crowd the polls.

Pundits point with alarm to voter turnouts of barely half the voting-age population. Americans are compared to Australians and one-party dictatorships which have voter turnouts approaching the purity percentage of Ivory soap. These countries have laws requiring citizens to vote under penalty of stiff fines.